CHAPTER

46

SIGHT IN GRAY

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Jieyuan opened his eyes, blinking wildly, his body jerking back. He desperately drew for breath. And as the cool air flew in through his nose and settled in his lungs, filling it, he came into awareness.

He was in a well-lit room. Large, square, luxuriously furnished. He was… He was sitting on a meditation cushion. Right. He blinked a few more times, running his gaze across the filled shelves outlining the walls, to the large, garish gemstone shrine-like cabinet directly in front of him. No windows.

He was in his new apartments, in the elder’s wing of the palace. Similar to his old one, except with more rooms and more extravagant. And just now, he’d been…

Immediately, he sent his soulsense inwards, focusing on his soul. And there he saw it. His soul, the sphere sitting in his chest, circumscribing his rib cage and spine. The fourth-shade red sphere. Or what would have been—should have been—fourth-shade red if it hadn’t been somehow tainted by something darker.

For once, though, his thoughts didn’t linger long on the mystery of the color of his soul. Because he’d just broken through to fourth-sign Redsoul. The memory of the breakthrough—the impossible, incomprehensible pain of the soul-flare—was already little more than an echo, though just thinking of it brought a spike of pain from his mind. It was as sore, as raw, as it’d ever been, bruised something bad.

No more mind-shatteringly painful activities for the time being, then. Bummer, that.

Jieyuan pushed his soulsense even deeper, focusing on the Fatebloom Heart. It was, as he’d predicted, fourth-shade red now. Fourth-shade red proper. He wasn’t sure how that worked—he wasn’t sure about anything, really, when it came to the Heart—but he’d been right on his bet that it’d follow his soulsign. From his connection to the Heart, Jieyuan got a distinctly pleased feeling.

Jieyuan stood up, stretching, getting his blood flowing. He felt more energized than ever. He always did, after a breakthrough, his body still getting used to the increase in stamina. Not to mention the pure rush that came from his other augmented attributes.

It was the fifteenth of Yellowlack. It was early morning, last time he’d checked, and an elders-only party would soon be heading to the Radiant Gold Palace for the opening of the Summit. His turn—the turn of the disciples—would only come five days from now, on the twentieth, when the tournament began.

He grinned at the thought. He’d broken through even earlier than he’d planned. The looming threat of assassination had served as all the incentive he didn’t need.

And there had been more of attempts on his life.

It’d been five days since the first attempt, on the tenth, and there’d been two more attempts since, both through Unrecorded assassins. Neither attempt had achieved any measure of success, and he wouldn’t have even known about them if Meiyao hadn’t informed him.

It still wasn’t known yet how the assassins kept getting inside the palace and through the security measures in place—though Meiyao had confided in him that the only explanation was that they were having inside help—but the guards they’d been assigned had, unlike the assassins, been plenty successful. All guards being Liangshibai, meaning, which hinted that the chief protector was taking Wanxin’s accusations seriously.

Jieyuan threw out some punches and kicks. Anything to get the energy out.

Whoever wanted them really wanted them dead. He hadn’t known about Unrecorded prior to the assassination attempt—it was the sort of obscure knowledge outer disciples didn’t have any business knowing—but he’d asked both Meiyao and Yongyi about them. And they were expensive to raise, much more so than your average tenth-sign Redsoul. Unrecorded were supposedly expendable, but they required a significant investment in terms of resources, and minds that were strong enough to handle the Pains but malleable enough to be molded into the mindset of tools weren’t exactly abundant.

When Meiyao had told him about the Unrecorded, Jieyuan had been surprised it was even possible to condition cultivators in such a way. Cultivators were, by their very nature, borderline impossible to break.

Feeling himself settling a little, Jieyuan channeled chroma into his mind-link ring, selecting Yongyi’s cipher. The connection was established just moments later.

You advanced, then? came Yongyi’s voice.

Sure did, Jieyuan said. Up for a spar?

Meiyao had beaten him to fourth-sign just two days ago, so he’d just evened the playing field again. He was looking forward to a rematch—she’d soundly trounced him in their last spar—but it was Yongyi he was looking forward to fighting more. He was positive he could beat a fifth-sign Yongyi now, but what about Yongyi with his power unsuppressed? A sixth-sign Yongyi? Against a fourth-sign Meiyao he’d lose, little doubt there, but he might just have a chance against her brother.

We’ll do it when we get back.

Get back? Jieyuan frowned. What— Wait. You did it?

Two days ago, he’d asked Yongyi if there was some way he could go out and get some shopping done. The instructions he got were that he wasn’t to leave the palace—he couldn’t wander around without a small escort of elders—but he had a pile of shards he was sitting on. A pile of shards he was determined to spend on a new weapon for the tournament—seriously, Meiyao’s saber was third strata higher than her own, and the less said about Daojue and Gleaming End, the better, whereas here he was, with a third-sign spear—as well as talismans in case his… suspicions were proven right.

He’d considered going to Meiyao about this, but she was currently at odds with her family. Yongyi, he’d reckoned, was his best bet.

We’re heading out in about an hour. My mother and Wanxin are both going, as well as some other elders. Wanxin begged off the Summit talks, claiming her daughter was more important. Mother took a similar approach. I think Grandfather and Father were actually glad they weren’t going. They aren’t on the best of terms, right now.

Got it. As Jieyuan well knew. Yongyi had shared with him a little of what was going on behind the scenes. The sect leader bringing up Meiyao’s engagement in front of everyone had taken everyone by surprise, and Meiyao was hardly the only one unhappy about it, even if she was the most vocal.

It turns out Wanxin had been toying with the idea even before I came to her with it, Yongyi went on. The Summit is when Radiant Street is at its busiest. It’s not something you want to miss

Trust me, I know. Merchant’s son, remember?

Radiant Street was Radiant Gold City’s main chromal commercial district, located on the Second City like the Gleaming Stone Palace, but on the opposite side. It was where most of the city’s ateliers—workshop stores operated by unbound crafter cultivators—and pavilion stores, set up by cultivators from cabal guilds, were concentrated. As well as where you could find chromal trade houses and auction houses, managed by merchant sects—sects that dealt primarily in chromal commerce.

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Jieyuan had been to it a couple of times before, following his father, as the Haoyujin family helped manage some of the Radiant Gold Sect’s pavilion stores. He’d never been to it during a Radiant Gold Summit, though. Mundanes stayed well away from it while that particular event was taking place, his father included. Chromal areas were hardly safe for mundanes to begin with, and when Radiant Street was packed with cultivators, it was very easy for mundanes to just… disappear.

Anyway, Jieyuan sent. What about Meiyao?

I just talked with her. She’s going. Yunzhu too. I also invited Daojue. He… refused.

No surprise there, Jieyuan sent back. He could count in one hand the times he’d seen Daojue since they’d arrived at the palace, and in not one of those times they’d so much as exchanged a word. Granted, it wasn’t as if Jieyuan was trying too hard. His focus these days had been mostly on Meiyao and her matters. Let me guess. “No,” and that’s it?

Precisely. I visited him, as I didn’t have his cipher, and he just stared at me before saying “No,” and closing the door. He was your teammate, wasn’t he? What is wrong with him?

Heavens if I know. Do tell me if you ever find out.

I don’t think I want anything to do with him. And you’re the one who’ll be going to the Howling Lighting Sect with him. He’s your problem, Yongyi said. Jieyuan could hear the smirk in the core disciple’s voice. In any case, congratulations on your breakthrough. We’ll be at your door in an hour.

Oh, Daojue was Jieyuan’s problem, all right. Yongyi had the right of it, even if he didn’t know the half of it. One hour. Sure thing.

Yongyi cut off the link. Jieyuan briefly considered his options, then sat back on the cushion for some harvesting and attuning. He took some shards out of his glyph-stretch pouch. Now that he’d broken through, his soulprism could hold even more chroma.

Rather than imbuing and pushing for fifth-sign, his priority now was getting as close to full as he could before the Summit.

—∞—

Walking through Radiant Gold City now that Jieyuan was a cultivator was a strange experience. To the augmented senses of a cultivator, the brightgold outlining the buildings and streets was even more vibrant, the different shades in the stones making up the tall houses on either side of him more pronounced.

The smells were also clearer. Some pleasant, fresh. Some… not so much, even if it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could’ve been. The city had a pretty robust sewage system, maintained partly through chromal means, and entirely for the benefit of the mundanes. Though he reckoned that cultivators, with their senses, appreciated it just as much, if not more so. He was certainly grateful for it right now.

The difference wasn’t just the augmented senses of a cultivator, though. There was something deeper about it, something more profound. As a mundane, he’d always had to keep his head low and keep an eye out for cultivators. Pretty much the worst thing that could happen to a mundane was catching the eye of an ill-intentioned cultivator, and though his father’s status had some weight even in the chromal world by virtue of his connection to the Radiant Gold Palace, it’d only go so far.

But now he was the one others eyed warily. He could see the mundanes, keeping to the edges of the street, eying him and his party discretely as they made their way down the walk. And they were in the Second City, meaning these mundanes held a status similar to that his father had had, standing at the very top of the city’s mundane food chain.

He couldn’t say he liked the dread his very presence caused in others now—he didn’t care for scaring the powerless folk like this—but he most certainly did enjoy his own lack of apprehension. Even with the possibility of an assassination attempt, he was still much safer now in the Second City than he’d ever been as a mundane.

Of course, the circle of elders surrounding him and his fellow disciples helped.

Wanxin and Yuyan were at the front, leading their little party. Six other elders—all Liangshibai protectors, sapphire-robed and topaz-eyed—surrounded them. They were all wearing armor, and though he and the other disciples had their weapons sheathed, the elders had theirs bared. They walked in silence.

Up ahead was Radiant Street. A tall brightgold entranceway marked its beginning, looming over the buildings on either side of it. This close to it, Jieyuan could see other cultivators wandering about past it.

The ones wearing elaborate robes of golden, bright green, and dark gray were easy to spot. Cabal cultivators, from the Radiant Gold Sect, the Viridian Death Cult, and the Xiyunfeng Clan. He also recognized a few robes from some of the merchant sects operating in the city and from cabals from neighboring cities.

And then there were the unbound cultivators. It wasn’t by their robes that he recognized them. You only needed a glance, really, to tell who was a cultivator and who wasn’t. There was something about having power—true, tangible power—that translated into the way you walked, the way you carried yourself, that mundanes just couldn’t hope to reproduce.

Heads turned as they made their way, glances lingering into gazes. And not just from mundanes. More than a few cultivators eyed them warily. Everyone here would know what the robes they wore meant, and their naked weapons didn’t help any. As they stepped into Radiant Street proper, crossing the brightgold arc, others made way for them.

Past the arc, the street opened up considerably, and buildings became taller, larger, and more spaced out. Radiant Street stretched for over a mile, curving over in the distance, following the outline of the Second City. It was home to well over a hundred different chromal establishments. None of the Redsoul cities nearby had anything quite like it.

Radiant Gold City was a chromal market hub of sorts. Both the Radiant Gold Sect and the Gleaming Stone Sect were inordinately wealthy for Redsoul sects, and they did business at the level of merchant sects. The Gleaming Stone Sect for the Liangshibai’s unusual ability to find gemstone deposits, and the Radiant Gold Sect for their literally limitless supply of brightgold. That made the city’s chromal commerce stronger, drawing in more unbound cultivators, particularly crafters—refiners, inscribers, and nurturers—who set up ateliers.

Wanxin turned back to face them. “Here we are. Anything specific you’re looking for?”

Jieyuan patted the sheathes holding the two halves of his spear. “A new weapon for me.”

Meiyao shrugged. Yongyi shook his head. Yunzhu looked thoughtful, glancing down at her sheathed sword. “Can I get a new one too?”

“Oh, gemstone, we’re getting you a new one of everything,” Wanxin said. “Same for you two,” she said, nodding to Yongyi and Meiyao. “Aunt Wanxin is going all out today.”

Wanxin looked back to Jieyuan, pausing. “Actually? All four of you. Heavens know I’ve got more money than I know what to do with. And I won’t take any nos.”

Well, Jieyuan wasn’t about to refuse an offer like that. He’d expected something like this, even, though he hadn’t been so sure he’d have been included. “Thank you.”

Wanxin smirked. “Think nothing of it. Now, weapons… All right. I know just the place.”

She headed down the street, and they followed.

Jieyuan looked around as they did. He’d never walked front and center in Radiant Street like this. All the times he’d been here with his father, they’d kept to hidden side paths, avoiding drawing as much attention to themselves as they could. Yet another difference.

And as he was looking at a tall, round, pillar-like building, completely out of place with the angular, white-and-gold buildings near it—some cultivators had a bit more leeway from the Radiant Gold Sect—he caught something gray, in the sky.

He frowned, squinting his eyes at it—and as the gray spot sharpened into focus, he saw that it was a person, dressed in gray. He got the impression it was a woman, though she was too far away for him to tell for sure.

He couldn’t see anything that the woman could be using to hang in midair like that. Meaning they could fly in their own right. An Orangesoul? His heart started beating a little faster.

And as he stared at the gray-robed woman, he started feeling… something. A faint sense of discomfort. Like someone was staring back at him. Not someone—like the woman was staring back at him. Now, it wasn’t just his own apprehension that had his heart beating faster—the Heart was racing now, and he got a very ominous feeling coming from Huaxin.

And then the woman raised a hand and… waved? Or at least it looked like a wave. And again he got the feeling that it was at him.

“Jieyuan?”

Jieyuan snapped a glance to the side, seeing that Meiyao was looking at him curiously, and that everyone else was standing in place. That they were all looking at him—because he had stopped.

He immediately looked back to the woman in gray, but she was nowhere in sight.

The Heart stopped racing, and it wasn’t sending him that sense of foreboding, anymore. Did that mean he was safe, then?

“You saw something?” Yongyi asked, and Jieyuan saw that he was looking off in the same direction.

“Nobody else caught her?”

“Her?” Meiyao asked.

“A woman, I think. Flying.”

Wanxin stepped closer. “Without a cloudcraft, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“What color robes was she wearing?” Wanxin asked.

“Gray,” Jieyuan said.

“Gray…” Wanxin frowned. “Not one I know, then.” She stared off in the same spot he’d been staring at earlier, then shook her head. “Well, higher-realm cultivators overfly the city sometimes. It’s probably nothing.”

Except the woman had waved. And he was pretty sure it’d been at him. But there wasn’t anything they could do with that information—the woman had to be at least at Orangesoul—and he didn’t want them to risk cutting their outing short.

“Probably,” he agreed.

It was something, though, unless orangesouls and above and above went around waving to redsouls at random.

Wanxin and the other elders conferred briefly before they resumed walking. Meiyao and Yongyi both sent a few glances his way, but neither made to talk to him.

There was nothing to it, he decided, except keeping an eye out and hoping that just walking around Radiant Gold City hadn’t gotten him involved in yet another mess.